How do I know? The headline told me so.
I know a lot of people who’ve traveled to Europe since “fascist” Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20th and not one has reported anti-Americanism, at least no more than in the past 50 years. One longtime Jewish friend, off to a conference in London, was slightly worried about the ever-increasing anti-Semitism in the UK and Ireland, a repulsive reality that’s also seen a revival in the U.S., but in the end had a grand time.
A paycheck’s a paycheck, and reporters/commentators are required to give “content” to editors—at least to publications that have editors—but two misleading recent articles are examples of why the media doesn’t matter much anymore. Atlantic propagandist Anne Applebaum (Sidwell, Yale, London School of Economics, Economist, Washington Post) undoubtedly racked up huzzahs from well-remunerated colleagues after her March 5th story “The Rise of the Brutal American,” ostensibly about the Trump/Vance/Zelensky White House meeting, but really was more sinister.
She writes: “Whatever illusions Europeans ever had about Americans—whatever images lingered from old American movies, the ones where the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and honor defeats treachery—those are shattered. Whatever fond memories remain of the smiling GIs who marched into European cities in 1945, of the speeches that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan made at the Berlin Wall, or of the crowds that once welcomed Barack Obama, those are fading fast… If Reagan was a white-hatted cowboy, Trump and Vance are mafia dons.”
What nonsense says this Brutal American. And not to interrupt Applebaum’s absurd myth-making, but how many Europeans are alive who remember the “smiling GIs” in 1945 or JFK’s speeches? As for Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize—while continuing hostilities abroad—not even a year after his administration began in 2009, wasn’t his “apology tour” a still-galling national embarrassment? (It’s telling that Applebaum doesn’t mention George W. Bush or Dick Cheney—the latter who endorsed Kamala Harris last fall, and she was dumb enough to show him off—or LBJ and Nixon, two more “war criminals” who weren’t popular in Europe. They were miles beyond the “brutality” she now calls American travelers. What’s in it for Applebaum? She’s a toady for Zelensky and so why not “brand” her fellow citizens, regardless of how they feel about Ukraine, with the brush of a wicked witch? Excuse me: that was brutal!
At The New York Times on March 21st, Lisa Abend wrote a story with this misleading headline: “The New American Travel Anxiety: ‘Will They Hate Us?’” As anecdote after anecdote demonstrates, probably not. This was my favorite: “On a trip to Italy, Rebecca Andersons, of California, and her family had a taxi driver whose criticisms of American policies started with Ronald Reagan [no white hat!] and ended with Mr. Trump. Ms. Andersons told him they were ‘too young to vote for Reagan and actually are Californians who voted for Harris.’ Apparently forgiven, they later found themselves singing along with the driver to ‘Volare.’”
I’ve visited “Old Europe” dozens of times, stretching from 1972-2017, and only on two occasions did I detect hostility. That was when Americans were merely “ugly.” Once was in Cannes in ’72 when I brought my young niece and nephew into a boulangerie, apparently a cultural infraction, and the proprietress barked at me. What did I know, I was 17 and thrilled to be in France. Was I supposed to tie the kids up to a parking meter? A grumpy small hotelier in London gave me the business in ’84 when I asked for ice with a warm bottle of beer, but I made a joke and after a day we were on speaking terms. In 2017, on a Dublin/London trip not long after Trump began his first term, politics was barely mentioned; it’s not as if those countries were led by popular men.
The accompanying photo is of my wife Melissa in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, many years ago. The only snag was that Melissa’s checked suitcase didn’t arrive in Berlin as scheduled; but four hours later, after a long walk around the city and lunch, we returned to the Kempinski to find the bag, along with flowers and an apology from Lufthansa, on our bed. It was a two-week winter trip (a wonderful time to be in Vienna, as we were on Christmas Day, egged on by the Hotel Imperial bartender to try as many kinds of Schnapps as we could stand, on the house), which also included extended family get-togethers in Hong Kong and then Bangkok.
Take a look at the clues to figure out the year: Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean debuts; the fatwa on Salman Rushie continues; the UK and Argentina resume diplomatic relations; Neil Kinnock (with no cribbing from Joe Biden) has a temporary lead in UK polls; Poll tax riots in London; Bugzy Malone is born and Roald Dahl dies; Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and John Updike’s Rabbit at Rest are published; Nolan Ryan picks up his sixth no-hitter; Phil Taylor wins his first Darts World Title; Go and Go wins the Belmont Stakes; Drexel Burnham Lambert files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; A Chorus Line closes on Broadway; Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine star in Postcards from the Edge; Nickelodeon Studios opens; The Godfather III is released; and Lamar Alexander becomes the Education Secretary.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023